Windows 2008 backup failed with error code '2155348040'

Question

Hello,
For the backup of our Windows 2008 servers, we use Windows Server backup. On one of the servers the backup will not run. In the application eventlog of the server there is the following message:
Log Name:      Application
Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Backup
Date:          2/16/2010 9:00:03 PM
Event ID:      546
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:     
User:          <user>
Computer:      <computer>
Description:
Backup attempted at '2/16/2010 8:00:03 PM' failed to start, error code '2155348040'.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Backup" Guid="{1db28f2e-8f80-4027-8c5a-a11f7f10f62d}" />
    <EventID>546</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2010-02-16T20:00:03.559Z" />
    <EventRecordID>33498</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="4744" ThreadID="3516" />
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>...</Computer>
    <Security UserID="S-1-5-21-3054417077-3708097399-2792259940-500" />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="BackupTime">2010-02-16T20:00:03.559Z</Data>
    <Data Name="ErrorCode">2155348040</Data>
    <Data Name="ErrorMessage">%%2155348040</Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>
Does anyone know how to solve this problem?
Best regards.
Wilfred van der Heijden

Answer 1

Hello Wilfred,
  thank you for bringing your concerns to us. 
  The error code  2155348040 indicates BLB_E_BACKUP_TARGET_SPACE_NOT_ENOUGH which happens if the target volume size is not
  sufficient to create a backup. In your case the total used space of source volume(s) could be greater than the space on the target volume.
  So please check the free and used space on the source volumes and retry the backup with the target volume space greater than that total
  space. We recommend the target volume size to be 1.5 times of the total size of all the source volumes for scheduled backups so that you
  can have sufficient number of backup versions stored.
  If you are using Block Level Backup then one other possiblity could be that your source volume is fragmented causing the backup size to be
  more than expected. If that is the case then retry the backup after defragmenting the source volume.
Thanks,
Bikash Agrawala [MSFT]
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